7. States are subdivided for purposes of local government into counties and towns; and these into smaller portions for educational and other purposes.
Thus the whole is like an extensive system of machinery, wheel being fitted to wheel. From the lowest to the highest the people of each local division have entire control over the subjects in which they only are interested; and there is very little opportunity for the exercise of arbitrary power. Executive officers may be changed by election, or impeachment, if they do not give satisfaction, or prove unfaithful; and as many securities as it is possible to devise are provided against abuses, or, if a majority in any State (or the United States) believe that an improvement can be made, there are constitutional and legal methods for securing it.
Thus our country is insured against serious discontents for which no remedy is at hand; and from the revolutions and internal disturbances that interrupt the progress, and destroy the resources of so many other countries. It is a government of, for, and by the people. The value of any institution or office in the United States, from the school district and director to State legislature, Congress, governor, or President, is determined by the relation it bears to the Public Welfare; and when it ceases to be useful there are, as there ought to be, legal means for laying it aside.
CHAPTER LXVI.
INDIVIDUAL STATES.
The original thirteen States are here arranged in the order of size—the one having the largest area being placed first. They are ranked according to their present area, the claims of some of them at first extending to territory since erected into States; and one, Virginia, has been divided. Her former area would have ranked her as first.
The States that follow are placed in the order of their admission into the Union.
